Sea level curves

The present sea level is a function of the geoid or equipotential surface of the earth's gravity field. The geoid relief amounts to several tens of meters. Further, it is the function of local effects such as the major wind pattern, major currents, and density variations due to salinity and temperature. The past sea level is the function of: global glacial volume changes (glacioeustasy) due to global climatic changes; ocean basin volume changes (tectonoeustasy) due to earth movements; and ocean level distribution changes (geoidoeustasy) due to geoid changes (Mörner, 1976a). Then too, it is influenced by changes in local meteorological, hydrological, and oceanographic factors. The present position of past shorelines is the function of crustal activity: isostasy and tectonism. In some areas, there is a secondary effect from compaction.

A sea level curve is a graph with the past sea level depth and/or elevation plotted against time. There are two main types of sea level curves: the relati ...

References

Curray, J. R., 1965. Late Quaternary history continental shelves of the United States, in H. W. Wright and D. G. Frye, eds., The Quaternary of the United States. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 723–735.

Mörner, N.-A., 1969. The Late Quaternary history of the Kattegatt Sea and the Swedish west coast: Deglaciation, shorelevel displacement, chronology, isostasy and eustasy, Sveriges Geol. Undersökning, C-640, 487p.

Mörner, N.-A., 1971b. The position of the ocean level during the interstadial at about 30,000 B.P.: A discussion from a climatic-glaciologic point of view, Canadian Jour. Earth Sci. 8, 132–143.

Mörner, N.-A., 1971c. Eustatic changes during the last 20,000 years and a method of separating the isostatic and eustatic factors in an uplifted area, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 9, 153–181.

Mörner, N.-A., 1976b. Eustatic changes during the last 8,000 years in view of radiocarbon calibration and new information from the Kattegatt region and other northwestern European coastal areas, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 19, 63–85.